DX: Visible Interview

When we went down to Austin to see the Ion Storm team we had a lot of questions about DX: The Invisible War. First on our list was "Can we play it?" followed almost immediately by "Why not?" But having finally been convinced that no amount of pleading, sneaking or shooting was going to change their minds, we decided to take a different tack with our questions.

Project director Harvey Smith and lead programmer Chris Carollo were happy to sit down with us and talk about their favorite features, the need to innovate and the ethics of emergent gameplay. We've already covered the game in a lengthy preview to which this interview should serve as a supplement. Be sure to check back soon for our interview with the head of the Ion studio, Warren Spector.

IGNPC: We talked with Warren over a year ago and he mentioned being glad that you were taking chances that terrified him. Can you just elaborate on the choices you've made that have paid off and those that haven't?

Harvey Smith: That's a good question and a hard one to answer. There's a way Warren would like to do things. He founded the studio but the studio's grown larger, we're doing two projects now and it's a lot of people who have totally different tastes than Warren has. I think he realized eventually that he was going to have to be a total dictator or he was going to have to loosen it up a little bit.

Our approach is kind of team-oriented. We have a team that is mostly aligned in a direction. Maybe it doesn't always match Warren's taste and that's probably where that comment comes from. He's more story, we're probably pulling back a little and adding more visceral interactions to the game. There's still a strong story but the action elements are as important to me as the story elements are.

I pride myself on burning traditions. We wanted to make a roleplaying game. Chris used to work at Looking Glass and I agree with something that my friends from Looking Glass used to say. "You should question everything a traditional game does and ask if you really need to do that again." What's a good example?

Harvey Smith: Exactly! Is there a better way to do that? Morrowind came out with a really cool, in-game way to do that. Richard Garriott years ago did the same thing. Instead of having a bunch of numbers, why not have a gypsy fortune teller ask you eight questions and based on those they ferret out your character type. It wasn't as intentional; you kind of randomly ended up with this strange character.

Chris Carollo: Like the shepherd?

IGNPC: D'oh!

Harvey Smith: Yeah, what combination of answers was that? I thought I was going to be an assassin. But yeah, I ask if we really need things like inventory and Warren goes "Aaagh!! We're an RPG! We have to have an inventory!" Well, maybe we don't; let's think about it. In the end we did need an inventory because we want you to be able to hoard stuff and carry it around and use it strategically, so we need some concept of an inventory.

Chris Carollo: Yeah, but if someone asks "Why do you have an inventory?" the answer isn't "Because we're an RPG."

IGNPC: It's "Because Warren said so."

Chris Carollo: Well, we want you to carry things and have stuff in your inventory so you can plan when to use them later. There are a bunch of gameplay decisions wrapped in it.

Harvey Smith: Chris is exactly right. We only want to do things for a reason. We don't do it dogmatically. I guess that sounds like I just said Warren was dogmatic but that's not what I meant. Warren wanted to make sure that we were making a roleplaying game so he pointed to several features and said "These are sacrosanct." We're not in to that.

We looked at them and said we're cutting the skill system. We're gonna merge it with the bio-mods because the bio-mods work better in a videogame. And we're gonna give you the same powers; you're gonna be able to do the same things strategically in the game. In some ways it's better. We're just not going to be presenting you with a big screen of numbers and stats just because every other RPG in the history of man has done that. Of course, the fans flame the hell out of you for that. "You're not an RPG! You took away my stats!"